SC notice to Haryana government on mosque land

New Delhi, June 18 (IANS) The Supreme Court Monday issued notice to the Haryana government and directed status quo on a plea challenging allotment to a mosque a land originally earmarked for a police station in Gurgaon district.

The apex court vacation bench of Justice H.L. Gokhale and Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai issued notice and ordered status quo after senior counsel Nidhesh Gupta told the court that an area of 968 sq. yard was allotted for a mosque which was earlier supposed to come up elsewhere.

Gupta appeared for Raghubar Dayal and 79 other petitioners who challenged the allocation of the land in sector 57 for the mosque.

The petitioners challenged the June 1 order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissing their plea challenging the allotment of land.

Assailing the high court order, the petition said that it failed to appreciate that the allotment of the land was done in violation of the guidelines for allotment of plots to social, religious and charitable institutions.